The supplementary health sector recorded a net profit of BRL 968 million in the first quarter of 2023. This result was influenced by the record remuneration obtained by operators with financial investments. The data for the period were released this Thursday (22) in the accounting panel maintained by the National Supplementary Health Agency (ANS) on its electronic portal. “In relative terms, this result is equivalent to approximately 1.45% of the effective revenue from health operations – the sector’s main business – which was BRL 66.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023. That is, for every BRL 100 of effective health revenue in the period, the sector had in the period about R$ 1.45 in profit or surplus”, says a note from the ANS. It is noteworthy that the operating result of medical and hospital operators – the main segment of the sector – closed the first quarter with a deficit of R$ 1.7 billion. It means that the amounts collected with the monthly fees paid by users were not enough to guarantee profit. The damage, however, was reversed through record gains arising from financial investments, which generated a remuneration of R$ 2.5 billion. With these earnings, a net profit of R$ 620.6 million was registered by the medical-hospital operators. Positive results are observed in all other segments. Profit was R$ 202 million among operators exclusively dental and R$ 145.5 million among benefit administrators (companies that act as intermediaries in contracting collective health plans, such as Qualicorp and AllCare). The accounting panel maintained by ANS is updated with financial data that health plan operators themselves must present. It is possible to query each one of them. Loss ratio According to the ANS, the negative operating result of medical-hospital operators results from the high loss ratio. More than 87% of revenues from monthly fees are being consumed with assistance expenses. The remainder has not been enough to meet other expenses, which involve administrative and marketing expenses, among others. The ANS assesses that the maintenance of high levels of claims is being influenced more by the slow recovery of revenues of large operators after the covid-19 pandemic than by a greater use of health plan services. The dynamics of the sector’s accounts in recent years has been influenced by the effects of the pandemic. In 2020, with the low use of health plan services in a context of social isolation, there was a record net profit of R$ 18.7 billion. In 2021, R$ 3.8 billion were accounted for. In 2022, amid the weakening of the pandemic, the result left billions. There was a profit of R$ 2.5 million. In April, when the 2022 result was presented, the director-president of the ANS, Paulo Rebello, told Agência Brasil that the message was one of caution, but that there were already signs of recovery. With the release of data for the first quarter of 2023, the agency reiterated in its note that there are signs of improvement. “It should be noted that this quarter there was a trend reversal, with revenue (adjusted by inflation for the observed period) rising more than healthcare expenses (also adjusted by inflation)” Readjustment of plans Data for the first quarter of 2023 are being released 10 days after the approval of the 9.63% limit for the readjustment of individual and family health plans. The announcement was accompanied by criticism from different entities. The non-governmental organization Brazilian Institute of Consumer Defense (Idec) considered that the authorized readjustment “extrapolates the limit of what is reasonable”. The note released by the entity draws attention precisely to the ability of operators to offset operating losses through the profitability of their financial investments, which have been boosted by the high interest rates in force. For Idec, there was a gap between the readjustment allowed and the IPCA – Broad National Consumer Price Index -, considered the country’s official inflation. “The 9.63% index is almost 67% higher than the accumulated inflation value in 2022 and once again pushes to the consumer management problems of the sector’s operators”, said Idec, in a note, adding that the yields of users do not grow at the same pace and remembering that more than 82% of the supplementary health market is made up of collective plans, whether corporate or subscription plans, which are not subject to the ceilings set by the ANS and tend to apply higher readjustments. The maximum percentage is set only for increases in monthly fees for individual and family contracts signed from January 1999 onwards. calculation formula generates indices that are detached from the actual increase in costs, disregarding parameters such as the loss ratio of the portfolios, the difference between business modalities, the regionalization of products and the speed of updating the list of procedures and medicines with mandatory coverage. The entity maintained, in a note, that the annual readjustment is essential to ensure the financial balance of the sector. The current formula has been applied since 2019. It is mainly influenced by the variation in assistance expenses from the previous year. The Extended Consumer Price Index (IPCA) is also taken into account, which measures inflation in the country. According to the ANS, the formula guarantees greater transparency and predictability and was developed in such a way as to avoid an automatic transfer of cost variation, ensuring a transfer of the sector’s average efficiency to consumers.
Agência Brasil
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